Seeing the photos of the Korean Pavilion at Shanghai World Expo blew me away! The pavilion was designed by Korean architectural firm, Mass Studies with the theme of ‘convergence’ in mind. It’s an amalgamation of ‘sign’ (Korean written language) and ‘space’: signs become spaces, and spaces become signs.

The exterior of the building is made up of 3 dimensional sculptures of the Korean alphabets, Hangul. The positive and negative spaces created by the geometric shapes of the letters invite the audience to interact with the space of the pavilion as well as the system of signs, the language of Korea. What better way to introduce Korea than with the language of Korea itself?

Seeing this building reminded me of the Upcycled Street Banner Bags that we introduced from Korea. The overwhelming popularity of the bags surprised us at first but it’s easy to see the universal appeal and beauty one finds in language, the geometry of lines and spaces.

Gum is a great quasi-food that keeps our mouths salivated and satisfied. But elsewhere, gum litter poses a huge headache for urban sprawls. In Britain alone, the cost it takes to rid the streets of gum is $230 million dollars–3 times more than what is spent on gum itself. So 25-year-old design student, Anna Bullus spent four months in a laboratory testing different ways of creating plastic polymer made of recycled gum; thus spawned the Gumdrop Bin Project. Sprinkled around the streets of central London are bright and buoyant bins that encourage pedestrians to recycle their gum.

The gum collected from these bins are then mixed with secret additives to form a new plastic that Bullus is planning to transform into innovative products like memory foam-like seat cushions called the Chewy Pad:

Can’t wait to see these in Los Angeles!

PowerShovel, Ltd. and the super cool, New Museum in New York will be teaming up NEXT FRIDAY for an exhibition dedicated to the Digital Harinezumi camera! The name of the exhibition, “Imperfect As They Are” is far from the impressive pedigree of video artists they have lined up to showcase their unique take on their Harinezumi world. Unfortunately, this event is invite only, and for one night, but we are sure some these artists will be posting their videos online after the event, and maybe inspire a new generation of video artists around the world!

Some of the artists being exhibited at this event include:

Agnes B, So Yong Kim, Bruce La Bruce, Harmony Korine, Isabel Coixet, Patrice Leconte, Claire Denis, Albert Maysles, Christopher Doyle, Jonas Mekas, Mount Eerie, Erroll Morris, Charlotte Gainsbourg (!!), Chan-Wook Park (!!), Kim Gordon, Kelly Reichardt, Miranda July (!!) and more…

Here are some of the ethereal videos Vimeo users have captured with their Harinezumi’s:

Play all three at the same time and you have an instant video art installation!

We have only a few more in stock at Poketo.com, so get ‘em while they’re still hot!
Digital Harinezumi

Here’s your weekly dose of interesting products we think will make your life more interesting.

1. The “Ink” Calendar:

See time pass through the magic of ink! This calendar slowly absorbs the ink, revealing a new number representative of the date.

2. Book themed Bookmarks

Instead of ruining the pages of your book by folding corners, why not use these bookmarks which have been carefully crafted to match the theme of the book. An idea created by Igor “Rogix” Udushlivy.

3. “Crtl + Z” Cards

These super geeky “sorry” cards should “un-do” whatever it is you did.

4. Sudoku Toilet Paper

Toilet paper really doesn’t have that much use for anything else other than wiping bodily fluids. Until I found this! Ingenius! Kills two birds with one stone. Saves paper!

5. Portable Lunch Setting

Designed by Demelza Hill, this portable lunch setting is so cool! But it still hasn’t really addressed the biggest issue of portable eating which is cutting food with a knife and fork. Yes, those utensils are present, but dont you still need to sit down at a table to do that?

All Via Design Fetish

Non-profit organization, 826LA presents Chickens in Love, an online pledge-a-thon, fundraiser, full-length album, and one-day music festival. 826LA workshop students, ranging from 7 to 13 years, wrote these songs in an 826LA workshop titled Songwriting with The Submarines, led by singer/ songwriters John Dragonetti and Blake Hazard of The Submarines.

From there, the kids had the opportunity to write their own music and lyrics in their own bands. The result was a full-length album titled, Chickens in Love, with 12 songs from 826LA students who then had their songs covered by Los Angeles-based musicians including, She & Him, Fiona Apple, Cold War Kids, Tim and Eric, The Submarines, Summer Darling, The Happy Hollows, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Dum Dum Girls, The Growlers, Crystal Antlers, and The Pity Party. Check out some videos of the original songs, followed by a sample track of the recording artist who covered it:

The Peeps: “Mamacita”

Coldwar Kids cover of “Mamacita”

The Taco Shells: “Mexican Food”

Summer Darling cover of “Mexican Food”

The Gummy Bears: “So Sleepy”

Fiona Apple’s cover of “So Sleepy”

The public can listen to these songs and bid on their favorites, with all proceeds going directly back into the organization itself, that will help fund writing and tutoring workshops for kids in L.A. (Pledges of $30+ will also be tax deductible!) When the bid closes on April 30th, 2010 the band that raises the most money will win the ultimate bragging rights with the 826LA Gold Record! The one-day Mini Music Festival showcasing Chicken in Love songs will also be held at the Echoplex on March 6th

Support children’s literacy and creativity through this great cause! Pledge now!

I don’t even know where to start with this post. The videos pretty much speak for themselves. NAKeD COMPAGNIE a motion design company based in Paris that create STUNNING visuals for concerts and live shows. I’ve never seen anything like it. Their strengths definitely lie in their ability to capture the essence of dance music, with technology and visual art. Many of their collaborations so far have been in Europe, but I pray that they do more events in the States, especially at dance clubs.

You bobbed your head a little, didn’t you?

Not not our Ted. The TED Conference 2010!

Yesterday marked Day 1 of the four-day conference that is happening at this moment in Long Beach and Palm Springs. This year TED has really reached out to some big-name celebs like comedian Sarah Silverman, TED Prize winner, chef, and activist, Jamie Oliver, and most surprising….director James Cameron! It will be interesting to see what words of “wisdom” Cameron will share with the world, but it’ll definitely be worth watching.

But while the rest of the general public will have to wait for these talks to be posted on TED.com, there are a ton of other videos updated daily to ensure that no one is denied access to participate in intellectual and inspiring conversations with some of the brightest minds in the world. Here’s a video that blew me away the other day. Architect student extraordinaire, Magnus Larsson and his idea on creating visually striking sand dunes in desert areas. This not only is an innovative way of using sand, but more importantly, an opportunity to create thriving communities in increasingly desolate deserts around the world.

Oh the possibilities! Free your minds!

“Buzz” Aldrin-1969

Amidst the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives, we never really take the time to realize the quiet and powerful beauty of the universe we live in. Nasa Images recently came out with a digital archive of their space images taken from the past 50 years and made it available for the the public to see, and share with others.

Kepler’s Supernova Remnant

“Mountains of Creation”– Where stars are created.

As an attempt to make space exploration and all of its esoteric mysteries a topic of real collaborative discussion here on Earth, Nasa created the “Guest Showcase” series, where various authorities in the fields of art, science, entertainment, business and academia curate exhibitions. The first was Pasadena Art Center’s Art Director, Stephen Nowlin who created a video titled, Things That Float. So sit back and relax with a glass of a fine red:

Funny thing is when scrolling down the list of names, all these potential ideas for awesome screen names or pseudonyms came to mind. These NASA guys really thought about the captions for some of these images! My favorite? The Sombrero Galaxy. teehee Don’t judge me, but I also tried looking up “alien” in the search box. A crap shoot, but secretly hoping…

The Sombrero Galaxy

All images from Nasa Images